Zwangendaba kaZiguda Jele Gumbi (c. 1785 – 1848) was the king of the

Ngoni people The Ngoni people are an ethnic group living in the present-day Southern African countries of Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. The Ngoni trace their origins to the Nguni and Zulu people of kwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. ...

for more than thirty years, from approximately 1815 to his death in 1848. He was the older brother of Somkhanda kaZiguda Jele who was also known as Gumbi and founded the Gumbi clan in

Kwazulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is loca ...

in areas of Pongola. Zwangendaba was a King of a clan of the Nguni or Mungoni people who broke away from the Ndwandwe Kingdom alliance under King Zwide. He was related to Zulu king

Shaka Shaka kaSenzangakhona ( – 22 September 1828), also known as Shaka Zulu () and Sigidi kaSenzangakhona, was the king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1816 to 1828. One of the most influential monarchs of the Zulu, he ordered wide-reaching reforms that ...

and served under him as a military commander. After a dispute with Shaka over the payment of tribute from raids undertaken by Zwangendaba on Shaka's behalf, Zwangendaba gathered his clan and fled from the control from the Zulus during the

Mfecane The Mfecane ( isiZulu, Zulu pronunciation: ̩fɛˈkǀaːne, also known by the Sesotho names Difaqane or Lifaqane (all meaning "crushing, scattering, forced dispersal, forced migration") is a historical period of heightened military conflict ...

, which he was partly responsible for. Zwangendaba led his people, then called the "Jele", on a wandering migration of more than lasting more than twenty years. Their journey took them through the areas of what is now northern South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe,

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

and

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northe ...

to the western part of

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

, where Zwangendaba set up a base at Mapupo. The Ngoni, originally a small royal clan that left Kwa-Zulu Natal, extended their dominion even further through present-day Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia when they fragmented into five separate groups following his death. Using many of Shaka's warfare methods of rule such as rigid discipline in military and social organisation, he knitted his nation and the people conquered along the way into a cohesive unit. With his people he migrated north into tropical Africa. The migration proceeded across the Zambezi in 1835 on a day when there was a total eclipse of the sun. King Zwangendaba was credited with practising Nguni esoteric knowledge and occult science, and thus on reaching the Zambezi, the waters of the river were reputed to have parted and opened to make way for him and his people (this has been likened to the parting of The Red Sea). Advancing north, ravaging the countries they crossed, they eventually arrived in the south west of what is now Tanzania. On the death of Zwangendaba in 1848, the Ngoni split into three groups, one main group settling in Malawi, one in Songea (Tanzania) and a third group migrated north to Mbogwe in Usumbwa where they fought with the famous Mirambo of Unyamwezi.

External sources

Capsule account of Zwangendaba migration
1780s births 1848 deaths 19th-century monarchs in Africa History of KwaZulu-Natal Mfecane {{Africa-royal-stub